“The Teatro alla Scala in Milan on Monday decided to return more than three million euros in funding to Saudi Arabia, amid growing criticism that Italy’s premier temple of music should not accept money from a country with a jarring human rights record. Mayor Giuseppe Sala said the theater’s board of directors had deliberated over the issue and ‘unanimously decided to return the money.'” – The New York Times
Category: music
How Does Music Affect The Brain? [VIDEO]
Every way possible. In this video, the folks at Wired dig into research and find out things like “why the prefrontal cortex shuts down during improvisation. ‘It’s not just something that happens in clubs and jazz bars. … It’s actually maybe the most fundamental form of what it means to be human.'”- Wired
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra Created A Fake Event For Young Musicians To Facilitate An Engagement
Yes, this happened (will it lead to new fundraising opportunities for symphonies?): A musician’s boyfriend and the DSO, working together, “created a fake networking event for young musicians on March 10 at Orchestra Hall. After a few days, Santa Cruz and a friend RSVP’d for the event.” – Detroit Free Press
Is London’s Proposed New Concert Hall Merely A Play For Bragging Rights?
The scheme is slated to cost nearly £300 million and is London’s volley in an intercontinental game of high culture one-upmanship, which in recent years has produced Herzog & de Meuron’s Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and Jean Nouvel’s Philharmonie in Paris. This arms race for cultural dominion has, in London however, reached new levels of absurdity with the decision to build the new 2,000 seat concert hall less than 300 metres from an existing 2,000 seat concert hall. – dezeen
‘A Cross Between Birgit Nilsson And Tina Fey’: How A Perfectly Good Mozart Soprano Became The World’s Leading Wagnerian Hero-Diva
Says Alexander Neef, general director of Canadian Opera Company, about Christine Goerke, “People can’t get over the sheer power of the voice — and I don’t mean only the volume. … It’s not only that she hits all the notes and she hits them powerfully. It’s that there’s always an element of storytelling that really allows her to connect with the audience.” – The New York Times
Afghanistan’s First All-Women Orchestra Is Now Touring Abroad
The ensemble Zohra, named for the ancient Persian goddess of music, was created five years ago for the female students at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, itself founded only in 2008. “The music performed is a combination of traditional Afghan music and western classical. For instance, their new arrangement of ‘Greensleeves'” — made for its tour of England — “contains attractive new instrumentation probably not envisaged by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1934.” – BBC
Tulsa Symphony’s New Executive Director: Keith Elder Of Aspen Festival
“Keith C. Elder, whose career as a performing arts administrator has included stints with such prestigious organizations as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Eastman School of Music, has been named the new executive director of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra.” – Tulsa World
Graham Vick’s Opera Company, Always A Community Affair, Has Brought Refugees Into Its Chorus
“Birmingham Opera Company has traditionally cast its chorus from local volunteers. Now it’s extending a welcome to people fleeing countries such as Sudan. In the past decade, the company has seen 90,000 people take part in its productions.” (video) – BBC
Spotify Accuses Apple Of Unfair Business Monopoly Practices
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek says that if Spotify pays this cut it has to “artificially inflate” its prices “well above the price of Apple Music.” But if it doesn’t pay, Apple applies “a series of technical and experience-limiting restrictions” that make Spotify an inferior experience. Ek also notes that Apple “routinely blocks our experience-enhancing upgrades,” including locking Spotify and other competitors out of Apple services like Siri, HomePod, and Apple Watch. – The Verge
Does Listening To Classical Music While You Work Help Your Productivity? Study Says It Depends
For instance, on the simplest task, if someone was generally not prone to boredom, they tended to perform better when listening to the most complex form of music than with either simple music or complete silence, albeit when the volume of the music was relatively low. If the volunteer was prone to boredom however, the opposite was the case, and silence was the best condition. – Forbes